


Before We Fall

by MyLadyDay



Series: They Loved Each Other [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blowing up the Swiss base, Established Relationship, Fall of Overwatch, M/M, Mentions of the Venice mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 09:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17363804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyLadyDay/pseuds/MyLadyDay
Summary: Part 4: Fall of Overwatch“Don’t think so hard,” Gabe said, “or you’ll be stuck with a permanent frown on your face.”Jack turned toward his desk, knowing Gabe would be sitting there like he usually was, grinning in the dark at his own joke. Despite the darkness, Jack could see him as clear as day, and he smiled, letting the tension leave him for a moment, knowing Gabe could see him, too.“Didn’t anyone tell you breaking and entering is bad?” Jack asked, like he always did: with a smile and no bite to his words.





	Before We Fall

**Author's Note:**

> My second piece for the zine!

There were eyes and ears everywhere, almost noticeably so, no matter where Jack went inside the base. Nowhere felt safe from the doubts and suspicions that were slowly eating away at him. They were hiding in the little things, the whispers and the small looks directed his way, in the way the most straightforward missions went wrong over incredibly well-timed incidents, small enough to seem coincidental.

In the way that the whispers always seemed intended to drive a wedge between him and Gabe.

Jack was afraid it might succeed one day, if the paranoia got the best of him.

But the feeling of eyes on the back of his head disappeared as soon as he entered his quarters much later than he wanted, yet again. There was always so much to do, and never enough time to do it. So many people breathing down his neck about decisions he didn’t want to make. Decisions that were much easier when Ana was around.

“Don’t think so hard,” Gabe said, “or you’ll be stuck with a permanent frown on your face.”

Jack turned toward his desk, knowing Gabe would be sitting there like he usually was, grinning in the dark at his own joke. Despite the darkness, Jack could see him as clear as day, and he smiled, letting the tension leave him for a moment, knowing Gabe could see him, too.

“Didn’t anyone tell you breaking and entering is bad?” Jack asked, like he always did: with a smile and no bite to his words.

There was a certain kind of peace to be found there in the dark, where no one was looking or listening, or expecting them to jump at each other’s throats at the slightest provocation. The dark didn’t even bother him, presenting no obstacle for his enhanced eyes. It was comforting, in fact, after the constant scrutiny he was under outside of the four walls of this room.

Gabe shrugged at that, an incredibly smug look on his face, showing that he knew exactly how many times Jack had asked him that. And yet he went on with this habit of breaking into Jack’s room. Not like Jack minded, anyway.

They were silent for a moment, and Jack could tell something was different. There was something in Gabe’s eyes. Something that made him stay silent a moment longer, rooted in place, without taking off his coat or putting down the stack of papers. He waited with bated breath, enjoying the peace while he could.

Gabe stood then, moving through the darkness with that stride of his. Confident. Intimidating, to anyone who wasn’t Jack.

Jack waited, curious and mildly alarmed, but patient nonetheless, until Gabe stopped in front of him. He waited for the hand, rough and calloused, to touch his cheek, and he waited for the arm to slide around his middle, and he waited for the kiss that would wash away the paranoia of the day.

He knew Gabe better than the back of his hand, and yet it still felt like the first time, thrilling and special, whenever Gabe kissed him.

But, like all their moments together recently, this one ended far too quickly. They didn’t move apart, but in a heartbeat the atmosphere changed noticeably.

Jack didn’t open his eyes, savoring the moment for as long as possible, knowing that Gabe was doing the same. And wasn’t that both heartwarming and worrying?

“O’Deorain is compromised,” Gabe said, after they'd stretched the moment out as long as they possibly could, knowing it wasn’t nearly long enough. “We need to move tomorrow.”

He had been expecting something like it, but Jack’s blood still ran cold as he processed the information. It wasn’t nearly enough time to prepare, nevermind the fact that they’d been preparing for months, perfecting the plan, refusing to talk about consequences. Somehow, it was still too soon and not enough planning and too early to say goodbye.

But Ana was gone, and McCree had gone not too long ago, their circle of trust becoming smaller with every passing day until there was no one left to fight with them. Reinhardt and Torbjörn couldn’t hide that they were starting to believe the rumors, believe that the rift between Jack and Gabe was real. Angela didn’t even try to hide her disappointment.

Ever since Gabe had returned from Venice and brought suspicion with him, Jack couldn’t look at anyone the same way. It sickened him, to doubt people he’d known for years, but someone had betrayed everything they stood for. To finally have confirmation that Moira was not on their side meant that there was no turning back.

It all had to go. Everything they’d built after the crisis, everything they had worked so hard for, was infested. Rotting from the inside.

“That’s not enough time,” Jack said, knowing they were just empty words. It had to be enough time to pull off what they had planned, or they’d have to settle for close enough.

“We don’t have a choice,” Gabe said, his hand grasping briefly at the fabric of Jack’s coat, as if trying to keep him there for as long as possible.

But it wasn’t long before he let go and took a step back, leaving a very noticeable void in front of Jack. The warmth was gone with him, forcing Jack to open his eyes and face the reality of their situation.

“I’ve been placing the charges around base for a while,” Gabe added as soon as Jack made eye contact again. This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Jack. “We have less to do now.”

“You mean we have the worst parts left to do,” Jack said with a sigh, accepting that this was happening and that he was ready to let go of everything for the greater good. Hopefully.

“You just need to be in the right place at the right time. And try not to get blown up,” Gabe added helpfully, before he reached out and took the stack of papers from Jack’s hand. Like an afterthought, as if realizing they were still standing there awkwardly in the middle of Jack’s room.

Jack followed him with his eyes, taking it all in while he could. Then he started moving as well, unceremoniously dropping the coat as if it was made of lead. It might as well have been, what with the weight of it. Gabe was already setting up at the desk, calling up blueprints of the base so they could go over the plan yet again, like all those times before.

A wave of weariness washed over him between one step and the next, with the knowledge that he wouldn’t sleep that night and that Gabe would probably be gone for good, come morning. 

* * *

Jack didn’t like the plan. He had a big part in forming it and making it plausible, but he didn’t like a single aspect of it. It depended entirely upon burning everything they’d worked for, probably hurting people in the process, only for him to disappear and Gabe to infiltrate the enemy. None of it was good and Jack could have done without it.

But what was one more fight, in a long line of many?

When they’d finally gone over the plan one last time, he could see the same exhaustion in Gabe’s eyes. The look on Gabe’s face and the silence around them just made it all so painfully...final. Dawn was just around the corner, which meant the timers would start ticking down the too-few hours before the explosives were set to go off.

Dawn was just around the corner and so was their goodbye. Jack couldn’t count how many times they’d said goodbye, expecting it to be the last time. Knowing this time it would actually be true was almost too much. No matter how long they’ve been planning this, there was no way to prepare for it.

“I should go,” Gabe said. with obvious reluctance in his voice. Just to drive the knife in deeper. “I need to get ready before the sun’s up.”

They didn’t actually need sleep, not with the enhancements they’d had, but there was no denying the urge to just grab Gabe and drag him to bed so they could both rest.

“It’s not like we can really screw this up,” Jack said with a scoff, resolutely not thinking of the consequences of what they were about to do. It would be much easier to go through with it if he ignored the possible worst-case scenario.

Gabe said nothing in reply. Only stared at him in silence, his expression soft in a way that made Jack want to choose sleep over saving the world even more. Clearly, Jack wasn’t the only one trying to forget what they were doing, if only just for a moment.

“I don’t want us to go our separate ways,” Gabe said in a low voice, as if afraid that if he raised his voice above a whisper, they wouldn’t be able to go through with it.

Jack would have considered dropping their plan if Gabe asked him to. Neither of them would actually give up on doing what was right, but Jack, at least, was entertaining the thought of it.

“Me neither,” he said simply. Offering no more, for fear they’d both finally admit aloud that they had never actually wanted to do this.

But it had to be done, all the same.

Jack took the first step, only stopping when he was in Gabe’s personal space, when they were breathing the same air, and when Gabe’s hands came up without a thought to circle around him. They had no time to waste, robbed of a proper goodbye by sudden the urgency of the situation.

And yet, when the time to say goodbye came, Jack couldn’t bring himself to speak. Not when Gabe’s hands slid under his shirt just to hold him as close as possible one last time. Not when he could spend what little time they had breathing Gabe in, knowing that he’d most likely forget what all of this felt like sooner rather than later.

“Remind me why this is a good idea, sunshine,” Gabe said, nearly breaking Jack’s resolve.

Gabe always had a way of doing that.

“It’s not a good idea,” Jack said, instead, “but we need to do it anyway.”

Gabe’s grip tightened around him, and Jack couldn’t help but pull him as close as possible as well, just to savor it while he could.

He couldn’t tell who moved first, but their lips were pressed together in a rush, soft and warm and so achingly  _ not enough _ at that moment. And then just like that, they weren’t kissing anymore, the contact broken between them from one moment to the next, as Gabe cast one last glance his way. Jack didn’t miss the look of pain in his eyes, but he was determined to see this through.

They both were.

Without a final word, Gabe was gone, only the soft click of the door left in his wake, the echo sounding in Jack’s ears for a long while.

He turned his thoughts to the day ahead and the plan soon to be set in motion, and he didn’t let himself think about Gabe anymore. He had to focus on what they were doing—focus on following the plan as best he could and surviving.

And hopefully, if they’d done everything right, the Strike-Commander would be dead by sundown.


End file.
